Echoes from Cañon
Our Core Beliefs
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Our Core Beliefs in Action
Director of Human Resources Misty Manchester thanks Business Office Manager Keri Peterson for her hard work on this year's salary and calendar adjustments.
A gigantic thank you goes out to Business Office Manager Keri Peterson for the tremendous work she has done this spring understandably applying our new annual school/work calendar so we can compensate employees based on their work various work classifications. Our primary goal was to ensure our new school calendar did not negatively impact anyone financially. This was no small task and the work Keri did prior to salary negotiations made it possible for bargaining teams to make key decisions because many questions were already answered.
This summer Cañon City School District and the Fremont County Department of Human Services are making plans to embed a full-time DHS worker into the school district. We believe doing so would vastly increase general communication between DHS and school staff about impacted students and families. This could also help DHS to better understand how our schools operate, and we believe could learn a lot about how DHS conducts its business. Our desire is to have this person become an integral part of our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support process, sharing opportunties and removing barriers to success for families we simply may not be aware of. We also believe this will clarify whom school staff should communicate with when addressing the needs of children whose families are being supported by DHS. This will also allow us to support our community mental health services partnerships supports offer students, perhaps even at the parent level. Finally, we think there will be opportunties for better collaboration between schools and DHS on how to best meet the needs, and establish chances for success when foster children are placed in our schools. We appreciate the staff of the Fremont County Department of Human Services for this out of the box thinking, and we have no doubt it will greatly support our first core belief in meeting the social-emotional needs of all students.
This summer Cañon City School District and the Fremont County Department of Human Services are making plans to embed a full-time DHS worker into the school district. We believe doing so would vastly increase general communication between DHS and school staff about impacted students and families. This could also help DHS to better understand how our schools operate, and we believe could learn a lot about how DHS conducts its business. Our desire is to have this person become an integral part of our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support process, sharing opportunties and removing barriers to success for families we simply may not be aware of. We also believe this will clarify whom school staff should communicate with when addressing the needs of children whose families are being supported by DHS. This will also allow us to support our community mental health services partnerships supports offer students, perhaps even at the parent level. Finally, we think there will be opportunties for better collaboration between schools and DHS on how to best meet the needs, and establish chances for success when foster children are placed in our schools. We appreciate the staff of the Fremont County Department of Human Services for this out of the box thinking, and we have no doubt it will greatly support our first core belief in meeting the social-emotional needs of all students.
Our Future Focus
The Tiger Dome ceiling will have a new, bright look to it this school year.
Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser has been working closely with the Cañon City Police Department planning an active shooter drill that will take place at Cañon City High School on Sunday, August 18th. It is, of course, our preference that such a drill does not take place while classes are in session. Paula's primary goal has been to cooperate with Chief Harvey's desire to do such a practice drill while also helping CCPD officers gain in understanding our district procedures for clearing rooms after a lockdown. A portion of our administrative staff will be required to attend this event while we also hope to garner needed participation from any staff at any level who might choose to volunteer.
Though we have major school construction projects taking place, lots of other facilities improvement activities are underway this summer. This includes making repairs to the clay tile administration building roof and painting the ceiling of the Tiger Dome ahead of a planned floor and bleacher replacement to take place in the summer of 2020.
Though we have major school construction projects taking place, lots of other facilities improvement activities are underway this summer. This includes making repairs to the clay tile administration building roof and painting the ceiling of the Tiger Dome ahead of a planned floor and bleacher replacement to take place in the summer of 2020.
Bond Progress
Roughly 6,000 bricks are being reused from the Cañon City Middle School 1925 gymnasium-auditorium.
At the Cañon City Middle School work site footers are being erected where our new life-skills/class wing will soon stand. Visitors to the site will also notice the hallway that once attached the old gymnasium to the newer one has been demolished. On the east side of the building, asbestos abatement is underway at the excavation site for the new administration offices. Demolition crews are also taking down that side of the brick veneer located on the old gymnasium/auditorium complex. I'm told more than 6,000 of the old bricks will be cleaned repurposed as part of the new construction project.
Meanwhile, at the Washington construction site, every effort is being made to stabilize the soils in preparation of the pouring of footers for the new building. The technique being used is to excavate deep, and then place alternating layers of liners and stable fill to bridge the site. Soil tests are being conducted every step of the way to ensure we reach a 98% compaction level before proceeding with construction.
Finally, site development work continues at our new grounds shop with curb and gutter mostly finished, leaving sidewalks and driving paths left to be installed.
Meanwhile, at the Washington construction site, every effort is being made to stabilize the soils in preparation of the pouring of footers for the new building. The technique being used is to excavate deep, and then place alternating layers of liners and stable fill to bridge the site. Soil tests are being conducted every step of the way to ensure we reach a 98% compaction level before proceeding with construction.
Finally, site development work continues at our new grounds shop with curb and gutter mostly finished, leaving sidewalks and driving paths left to be installed.
Site work crews are applying a mesh liner to support the compacting of soils under the new Washington facility.
Last Week
Last week I submitted and received substantial approval for our federal programs application, began planning the next steps for our recent Civic Canopy work. I also attended a board work session and meeting, held a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, attended a routine Facilities Corporation meeting, and traveled to Denver to attend an Early Childhood Leadership Commission gathering. Friday was dedicated to a regional Technology Sector gathering here in Cañon City. I also made numerous visits to our construction work sites and spent a bit of time organizing my digital work files and finalizing principal evaluations in the CDE Randa evaluation system.
There was an excellent turnout for the summer quarterly Upper Arkansas Technology Sector meeting last week.
This Week
This week I'll learn how to use our new board room Clevertouch display device, work on Memorandums of Understanding related to our new school calendar, hold a SAC meeting, attend a construction meeting, and participate in a legislative advocacy planning session. I also look forward to spending some time with family over the 4th of July holiday weekend.
Thanks for listening once again, and have a great 4th of July!
George. S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again, and have a great 4th of July!
George. S. Welsh
